Lt. Gov.

Republican former Rep. Ernie Konnyu has decided not to challenge Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom for his seat this year – mainly because nobody in his party would bankroll him.

Konnyu, 76, of San Jose, had said last Friday he was considering such a run, but he sent an e-mail Wednesday saying he has decided against it.

Though he still believes Newsom to be vulnerable, “the only problem with my election formula was that I could not find a producer to finance this fun show,” Konnyu wrote Wednesday. “The Republican State Chairman, former Senator Jim Brulte, showed no interest in fielding anybody against Newsom. That was especially true with me since he disrespected me in 2004 and we haven’t talked since.”

Republican former South Bay Congressman Ernie Konnyu said Friday he’s considering a run against Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom because Newsom is “fundamentally untrustworthy.”

Newsom as San Francisco’s mayor violated state law by authorizing marriage licenses for same-sex couples in 2004, Konnyu said, and violated his own Catholic beliefs both by having an affair with his campaign manager’s wife in 2007 and by remarrying in 2008 without having his first marriage annulled.

“The analysis I did – just Internet research – on the lieutenant governor found him, in my opinion, vulnerable despite the Democratic nature of California,” Konnyu, 76, of San Jose, said Friday afternoon. (He might want to step up that research a bit, given that he misspelled Newsom’s name – putting an “e” at the end – in emails he sent Wednesday and Friday.)

That analysis has led him to reconsider his earlier decision not to run. “I’ve been discussing this with some of my friends for several months but it never got past the discussion stage – I had actually said this was a crazy idea, and I had dropped it.”